Washington state lawmakers have passed a bill that takes steps to prosecute more human trafficking cases and fix the state’s “Safe Harbor” law meant to protect child sex trafficking victims. In early March, Washington legislators unanimously passed Senate Bill 6006, which aims to increase prosecutions of human trafficking cases by expanding some definitions associated with trafficking crimes and removing time limits to ...
Read MoreIn the News
Democrats suggest their approach is better designed to address the officer shortages and difficulty recruiting. Senate Majority Leader Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, during a meeting with reporters this week,said, “The approach that Democrats are taking with the regional training centers has been completely ground changing.” “We used to have a backlog of individuals who wanted to go through the academy, now we multiple ...
Read MoreBeginning this month, Washington officials have new authority to root out abuse and neglect of children housed in private boarding schools, residential treatment centers and the state’s school for the deaf. Senate Bill 5515 tasks the Department of Children, Youth and Families with investigating allegations and approving licenses for facilities that had previously been beyond the scope of the child welfare agency. “This ...
Read MoreAs lawmakers return to Olympia for the 2024 session, the Washington state Legislature is taking another run at eliminating the twice-yearly ritual of changing clocks. “I’m working with colleagues in Oregon and California and they’re going to be trying to get similar legislation through their states so that the Pacific time zone, hopefully, could be all together on this," said state ...
Read MoreIf there were a law against doctors using their own sperm to inseminate their fertility patients, 33-year-old Brianna Hayes said it’s possible she might have lived a different life. Hayes was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 4 years old. Then Epstein-Barr virus. Then hip dysplasia. In total, she said, she went through five hip surgeries and had to learn how to ...
Read MoreLifeWire, a Bellevue, Washington-based organization that helps people impacted by domestic violence build, has presented Washington State Sen. Manka Dhingra with the Norm Maleng Award for her work to end domestic violence. “I am so honored to receive the 2023 Norm Maleng Award,” said Dhingra, chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee. “I started working on behalf of survivors of ...
Read MoreIn its 50th year of providing services to persons with alcohol and other substance use disorders, Evergreen Recovery Centers was joined by Governor Jay Inslee to celebrate the completion of a new facility on its original campus on Summit Avenue in Everett, WA. The organization purchased a small house on Summit Avenue in 1973 to serve homeless persons beginning recovery ...
Read MoreRepresenting two different generations of Cal grads, Keiser and Dhingra feel a kinship when fighting for abortion rights. Keiser completed her undergraduate degree in political science during the tumultuous 1960s, post-free Speech Movement but during the People’s Park era. Dhingra attended during the calmer ‘90s (“I mean, we had the naked man,” she laughed), but still she felt stirred by ...
Read MoreGov. Jay Inslee signed five new pieces of legislation into law on Thursday aimed at protecting reproductive health-care rights in the state of Washington. “We are here to proclaim very vocally and very forcefully that we will not allow any state, or any Trump-appointed judge, to jeopardize a woman’s right of choice in the state of Washington,” Inslee said. “We ...
Read MoreOLYMPIA, Wash. — The manufacture and sale of guns defined as assault weapons would be banned in the state under a bill that passed out of the Senate Law & Justice Committee Tuesday afternoon. House Bill 1240 defines dozens of guns that would qualify, including modifications that would add weapons to the list. “We have to take action,” said committee chair Sen. ...
Read More